Nordin, Lissa

Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Anthropology.

2007 (Swedish)Doctoral thesis, monograph (Other academic)

Abstract [en]

The thesis deals with single, middle-aged heterosexual men in northern Sweden and their search for contact with women. It is based on two years of fieldwork in the sparsely populated inland area of Västerbotten. The study focuses on normative heterosexual love and the heterosexual couple and their significance for the creation of male heterosexual gender. The study takes us to the heart of normative heterosexuality, namely how romantic love ought to be practised to be considered true and correct, what the preconditions are for it and who has the opportunity for and the ‘right’ to it. Theoretically, the study is inspired by queer theory, feminism, the anthropology of gender and sexuality, and cultural geography. A central theme is place and its significance for sexuality. The book pays specific attention to how men create and enact heterosexuality in a sparsely populated area. It contributes with an ethnographic account of love, emotion and sexuality among (heterosexual) men in a western rural context. The thesis demonstrates the central link between traditional gender and heterosexuality. It is only through a ‘real’ loving relationship with the ‘right’ woman that men can achieve a complete male gender and be regarded as adult persons with a future. Those who fail in the task risk becoming ‘old boys’ in the periphery of the heteronormative. Almost all the men in the study had accepted the demands of heteronormativity. As a result, some men, in their effort to build a couple, travelled to Russia to meet women. They thereby risked trading one stereotype for another, the exploitative male who buys sex and is incapable of having a relationship based on equality with a ‘modern’ woman.